ARTS RESEARCH IN THE NEWS

A CBC News article offering dating advice for singles includes comments from Carrie Ichikawa Jenkins, a professor at UBC who studies the metaphysics of love.

“There is this perception that we can’t understand love, and that it’s really mysterious,” said Ichikawa Jenkins. “Nothing we do is going to get us any closer to figuring out what it is, and you have to let it go and not overthink it.”

A similar article appeared on Yahoo.

Digital diplomacy was the topic of an article by UBC academics Julian Dierkes, Zameena Dadani, Emily Mann, Chad Rickaby and Brady Fox for Open Canada.

Canada has a huge opportunity to improve its social media footprint in support of its foreign policy, according to the scholars. They recommended creating a clear strategy across different accounts, forming common themes, and enriching content through graphics and visuals.

A Globe and Mail article highlighted the need for swift action to regulate Vancouver’s overheated housing market. The article quoted UBC geography professor David Ley.

“I would say no one is looking after the citizen,” said Ley. “A market such as this leaves itself open to incredible opportunism, and on occasion that is going to cross over into criminal behaviour. Why should we expect anything different?”

In a related Globe and Mail article, Ley argued for a well-calibrated tax to cool speculation, similar to Singapore’s 16-per-cent tax on buyers who sell within the first year of purchase.

A B.C. teen who is African by race but legally and culturally a member of the Heiltsuk First Nation has been expelled from a First Nations basketball tourney apparently on the basis of race.

UBC sociology professor Wendy Roth said the teen may have been expelled for a different reason.

“My guess is somebody wants to exclude him because he’s good,” Roth said. “And it has absolutely nothing to do with how he was raised or his ethnicity.”

This Canadian Press story appeared in the Globe and Mail, CTV News, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, and The Province

A UBC study is mentioned in a Psychology Today article on the effects of the colour red.

The UBC researchers studied an isolated, traditional small community in Burkina Faso and found that there was a link between red and sexual attraction among the community members , suggesting that red might be a common language in the human mating game.

A CBC Manitoba story on Winnipeg’s dating scene mentions UBC economics professor Marina Adshade.

Adshade said educated women are particularly disadvantaged in Winnipeg’s dating scene–a scenario that plays out across Canada as well.

“In Canada, if you look at women you know say between the ages of 25 and 35, for every 100 men that have a university degree, there’s 135 women,” Adshade said.

Scott Watson, head of UBC’s visual arts department, in quoted in a Globe and Mail article on 1960s abstract painter Joan Balzar.

Watson paid tribute to Balzar’s accomplishments and forceful personality.

UBC economist Marina Adshade outlined three gift-giving scenarios for couples on Valentine’s Day on ABC TV. If both “players” buy gifts, everybody’s happy. If only one person buys a gift, there could be negative consequences. The best scenario might be for neither player to buy a gift, Adshade says.

Yahoo also posted the clip.

A CBC News article on pension reform mentions Generation Squeeze, a campaign founded by UBC policy professor Paul Kershaw to advocate for Canadians in their 20s to 40s.

The group supports a proposal from economists Kevin Milligan and Tammy Schirle to double the yearly maximum pensionable earnings, set at $54,900 for 2016.